EB 2013: When calories equal exercise, do people eat less?

EB 2013: When calories equal exercise, do people eat less?

Posted on 04/25/2013 at 08:49:45 AM by Student Blogger

By Sarah Gold

Calories on menus -- it hasn't had quite the public health affect
that we'd hoped for. Critics of the program say it's because the
number is given out of context. How does a 550 calorie (with 29g of
fat and 10g saturated fat) double cheeseburger fit into someone's
daily calorie needs? And whose calorie needs? A 200lb muscular man,
a 120 lb trim female, or 250lb overweight man or woman? What about
if you add in a fries and large soda with that? Doing math while
standing in a crowded fast food line with 3 kids at your side –
forget it. There are also people that think that if they chose the
salad over the meatball sub, they have permission to get the chips
and soda with it. It's easy to see why someone without an education
in nutrition might look right past those calorie numbers.

But what if we give that calorie label a little context? That may
help the cause, according to research that Ashlei James, graduate
student at Texas Christian University, presented at the Nutrition
Education minisymposium on Tuesday. Ashlei and her team
randomized 200 men and women ages 18-30 into three menu groups: no
calorie labels, calorie labels only, and calorie labels plus
minutes of walking it would take to burn off those calories.
All three menus offered the same food and beverage choices, and
calories burned were based on the average 150lb person walking at
3.5miles per hour. All participants were blinded and told they were
there for a study on hunger cues.

The group with the calories plus walking minutes ordered an average
of 139 fewer calories than the group with no menu labels, and
consumed 97 fewer calories of their meal, both of which were
statistically significant. There was no significant difference in
what was ordered or consumed between the other two groups or
between the calories only and calories plus walking group. When
asked, 90% of participants from the two groups with menu labels
responded that they noticed the labels.

Interestingly, there was no difference in calories consumed after
the meal among the groups suggesting that group that ate less
didn't make up for it later.

Similar results were found in a web-based study that tested the
same idea earlier this year. These results provide some promising
data for the future of calorie labeling. Consuming just 100 fewer
calories at just one meal per day can result in up to a 10-pound
loss in one year.

However, it's important to note that this was a small study among
young men and women, and only looked at one meal in a research
setting. To learn more about the general public's response to such
information, it would be interesting to see this hypothesis tested
in a real life setting at a fast food or chain restaurant.